ON Saturday Gauteng Pigeon Union (GPU) liberated the pigeons from Smithfield in the Free State and it seems that with every race, the pigeons seem to get tougher.
The race from Smithfield had the pigeons flying into north west winds with speeds of up to 32km in places. Riverpark Pigeon Club (RPC) had 14 members flying 169 birds in the young race and 16 members flying 244 pigeons in the old bird race.
Smithfield is an average distance of 486km for RPC members but because of the strong head winds, the nett flying time for the young birds was six hours 53 minutes and 19 seconds. It took 40 minutes 22 seconds to fill the top 30 positions on the result sheet.
After the race results were completed, it was calculated that 57 per cent of the young birds had not returned from the race – fortunately for the members, a few were back on Saturday evening and many returned during the course of the day on Sunday.
The young bird race winner was Tallies Lofts (Jan Taljaard) whose hen clocked 12 seconds before Doves Nest Guest House (Gawie Botha). Tallies Loft is in 12th position in the GPU results and Doves Nest Guest House 13th.
The rest of the young bird results were:
Tallies Lofts 1st, 8th, 30th; Doves Nest Guest House 2nd, 11th, 13th, 21st; Hilton Pitout 3rd, 25th; Blackie Swart 4th, 22nd, 23rd; Sky Lofts (Corrie Moller) 5th,18th; G & E Lofts (Graham Cheary & Elaine Russell) 6th, 12th, 16th, 19th; Flip van Staden 7th; Le Roux Lofts (Pieter le Roux) 9th, 17th, 29th; Reinhold Brichta 10th, 15th, 20th, 24th, 26th; Bakgat Lofts (Danalien Snyman) 14th, 27th and 28th.
The result for the open race saw a slight improvement in the race time with the winning pigeon having a nett flying time of six hours 47 minutes and nine seconds. The top 30 positions were filled in only 17 minutes and 18 seconds.
There was about 20 per cent of the old birds still out when the results were finalised.
The open race winner was Hilton Pitout with a four minute 25 second lead from Reinhold Brichta.
The final results were:
Hilton Pitout 1st, 14th, 26th; Reinhold Brichta 2nd13th, 21st; Doves Nest Guest House (Gawie Botha) 3rd; Beano Daschner 4th, 5th; Le Roux Lofts (Pieter le Roux) 6th, 23rd; Tallies Lofts (Jan Taljaard) 7th, 8th, 30th; Blackie Swart 9th,18th; Pine Pienaar 10th, 17th, 20th, 25th; Flip van Staden 11th, 24th; Henry Mostert 12th; Fred van Rensburg 15th, 28th; Albert Neilson 16th; Sky Lofts (Corrie Moller) 19th, 27th; Connie Coertse 22nd; G & E Lofts (Graham Cheary & Elaine Russell) 29th.
